Queer Experimental Film Series Set for MX'D MESSAGES Festival at New York Live Arts

Dirty Looks, a bi-coastal platform for queer experimental film, video and performance, presents an afternoon film program, AFTERNOON DELIGHT BY DIRTY LOOKS, curated by Bradford Nordeen as part of Mx'd Messages, New York Live Arts 2017 Live Ideas festival. Designed to trace contemporary queer aesthetics through historical works, Dirty Looks will show quintessential LGBTQI film and video, alongside up-and-coming artists and filmmakers.

Films will be shown Wednesday, March 15 through Friday, March 17, starting at 2:30pm at New York Live Arts, 219 West 19th Street, NYC. Tickets start at $10. For tickets and information, visit newyorklivearts.org or call 212-924-0077.

On Wednesday, March 15, Dirty Looks assembles a screening of Hardcore Home Movies, a program of explicit Homocore shorts from luminaries of the scene like G.B. Jones (The Troublemakers, Super 8 on DV, 20 min, 1990), Scott Treleaven (The Salivation Army, Super 8 and video, 22min, 2001) and Rick Castro (3. Dr. Chris Teen Sex Surrogate, VHS, 25 min, 1994) as well as lesser known works by artists like Jill Reiter (The Birthday Party, 16mm on video, 9min, 1993), Jonesv of the Queercore band Fagbash (Fiend, Super 8 on HD, 3min, 1992) and Greta Snider (Our Gay Brother, 16mm, 9min, 1993 and Hard-core Movie, 16mm, 5min, 1989). The rough-cut, home-made quality of these gay and lesbian movies from 1989 to 2001 satirize, challenge and explore sexual identity.

The program continues Thursday, March 16 with Bight of the Twin, a documentary film about artist, musician and writer Genesis Breyer P-Orridge's and the Los Angeles-based artist and filmmaker Hazel Hill McCarthy III's journey to Ouidah, Benin, Africa, to explore the origins of the Vodoun religion and its relationship to Western performance art. They discover a radical connection between Breyer P-Orridge's life and artistic practice and one of the world's oldest religions. Breyer P-Orridge and late wife Lady Jaye underwent a series of surgical procedures to become physically identical to one another, seeking to perfect a gender-neutral state through a process they termed Pandrogyny. Breyer P-Orridge, through this ancient religion, sees a way to reconnect with the spirit of h/er deceased wife.

Stadt der verlorenen Seelen (City of Lost Souls) (16mm, 91 min.1983), shown on March 17, starring singer and drag artist Angie Stardust, transgender punk singer Jayne County, who wrote the film's theme song, and transvestite Tara O'Hara, among others, is a musical satire set in Berlin, Germany that fictionalizes the lives of a group of expatriate American cabaret artists looking for social acceptance and a place to give full reign to their creative nature. German filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim directs the mostly American cast in a trans musical spectacle that has been described as "Hedwig and the Angry Inch ... in reverse." In German and English.

Located in the heart of Chelsea in New York City, New York Live Arts is an internationally recognized destination for innovative artistry. New York Live Arts produces and presents dance, music and theater performances, offers an extensive range of participatory programs for adults and young people, supports the continuing professional development of artists and serves as home for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company.